What resources have been helpful? (Joyce)

In November 2024, we met with every possible resource available to give us guidance through the darkest moments of a new cancer diagnosis and therapeutic uncertainty. One extremely useful appointment was with an occupational therapist (OT). I know OTs through their work with patients in the hospital and rehabilitation facilities. I’ve seen them develop and jerry-rig strategies for patients to become more independent with their activities of daily living (getting up from bed to stand, showering, cooking), while still living with a physical disability. But this wasn’t the focus of our appointment. Instead, this OT highlighted 5 things that impact overall health, particularly for me as a person living with cancer. I wanted to use this platform to highlight, remember, and integrate them into my routine life and faith. Maybe you’ll find one or more of these useful:

1. Sleep

“6-8 hours of quality sleep. Naps are OK. Take it when you need it. No more than 1 hour. Limit screen time.”

An order to rest? Yes, please! Say no more to this working wife and mom! I love rest! This includes restorative sleep and other regular pauses from the daily/weekly/yearly rush. We cannot function from day to day without the replenishment that rest gives. I remember covering the topic of sleep in the basement teaching building during my first month of medical school. I imagine this course was added in the wake of a recent movement to restrict the 100+ hour weeks that medical trainees were working, which had ramifications on patient care, education and overall morale. To quote Peter Attia, the former “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mantra wasn’t a recipe for long term success. Thankfully we have research to back the importance of rest now. https://peterattiamd.com/understanding-sleep/

Did you know that God has much to say about rest? While the Creator of the universe certainly didn’t need to do so, God modeled rest for us upon completing His miracle of creation and took the 7th day to rest. (Genesis 2:1-3) Jesus, God Himself as man, operated within the limitations of a human body and modeled times for rest too (John 4:6, Mark 6:31) including in the middle of a great storm. (Matthew 8:24) The world and our bodies were created with rhythms that are meant to resync and renew us daily.

2. Nutrition

“Maintain calories and nutrients. Refer to a nutritionist if we’re falling behind.”

I’ve been pondering the question of why so many people are being diagnosed with cancer at such young ages. Was I simply that that unlucky to have gotten this extremely rare lung cancer at age 43, or are we seeing a pattern emerge? What about the others I know who were given a cancer diagnosis in their 30s without any family history or known exposure to carcinogens? How about those in their 20s? A lot has been written and researched regarding disease prevention and healing through nutrition. Many personal friends have made nutrition book suggestions over the past 2 months. Just this week by dentist and dental hygienist, self-proclaimed “nerds” (my people), both talked about the literature they are reading about nutrition and its impact on health, wellness, and disease. The Wall Street Journal last week highlighted some of the research being on early cancers and potential connections the gut and diet. https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/young-people-cancer-causes-gut-science-21375280

I don’t have any enlightening insights for you, but we can all agree that we need physical fuel to sustain our physical bodies. While I do think there’s a lot of havoc being wrecked on our bodies with how modern foods are made and processed, God originally designed the earth to sustain us physically (Genesis 1:29, 9:3). We are instructed to ask him for our daily bread (Matthew 6:9-13). Having designed us too, he knows our primary physical needs, including nutrition.

A really great example of God providing for those physiological needs is in the book of 1 Kings. God sends a faithful prophet, named Elijah, to confront King Ahab for leading the kingdom of Israel into a spiral of wickedness. Even kings need correction, right? Problem is, Ahab’s influential wife, Jezebel, had quite the reputation for killing prophets who spoke against their wickedness. Elijah was the next target. He knew it. He ran for his life into the wilderness. He was so terrified; he prayed that he might die.

“‘I have had enough, Lord’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’ Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night.” 1 Kings 19:4-9

How tender that in Elijah’s deepest, darkest, desperate moments, God knows and provides for the most basic of his physical needs first, before laying out the next steps and providing even more in this beautiful story of victory. In my life these past 2 months, God has provided so many people to meet this most basic nutritional need for me and my family. Thank you to the family, friends, church and neighborhood for being God’s hands and feet, serving our family in meeting this need! It has been a great blessing.

3. Physical activity

“Exercise improves energy levels. Goal of 150 minutes of aerobic activity a week, such as for 30 minutes 5x per week.”

Our bodies were wonderfully created and meant to move and work. Ask anyone who has lived with a broken and casted limb. The part of the immobilized, unused body will lose muscle, strength and function until it can be used and built up again. So, get up and move with what you have. Admittedly, I am not the greatest inspiration for doing this, especially the past 2 months, but having another person walk alongside with you to cheer you on can be extremely important in movement and other parts of life. (Ecclesiastes 4:4-10, Proverbs 27:17). Better yet, be that cheerleader for someone else! I bet you’ll find that favor is returned 10-fold! This leads to the next point.

4. Social connection

“At minimum, once a week.”

I am an ambivert - right down the middle between an extravert and introvert. While I gravitate just a little more towards introversion naturally, I know and have experienced that we were made to thrive not in isolation, but in social connection with others. We were meant for community. My OT encouraged me to be intentional about connecting with family and friends as we started to come out of the shock of the news. There is no way I can make it out of my anxious and sad moments, which happen more now than before, without God strength, without His Word and without the relationships that He has placed in my life today. Genuine, social connection with others is an act of love and way to live out what God has called us to do! (Romans 12:9-13) I am grateful for how technology has made this more possible with those who don’t live near us in Idaho, for Google calendar that helps me manage and pace myself with these important and life-infusing connections, and for you who have reached out to me.

5. Coping

“How do you manage stress? Relaxation, music, something else?”

I was pleasantly surprised when the OT asked these questions. They gave me the opportunity reflect on the only source of hope I have in life and in death. It gave me perspective of what matters most to me. Life on this earth is short and ultimately meaningless, unless you believe there is more than what we see and experience here and now. Even if you aim to leave a legacy for family or some noble cause after your death, in 100 years, it will likely be forgotten. Except for a very small handful of people, most who I know, regardless of their faith background, believe there is something more than what we perceive here and now.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

What makes faith in our great God so wonderful is that there is no need to or even possibility of earning or working our own way into the next wonderful life, eternity in heaven. On this earth, we are wretched people – inclined to selfishness, pride, you name the vice. I’ve got more than a few of these. I’ll name vanity as one I still struggle with. But the good news is that the work of redemption from our wretched state has already been done through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Because of His great love for us, He took on the sin of the world, including mine. (John 1:29) We need only receive the gift of salvation through God’s great grace, by faith in Jesus as our Savior. (Ephesians 2:8-9) This is an offer for everyone! (2 Peter 3:9)

This is what gives me the greatest comfort when I find myself anxious about what my life will look like tomorrow, this month as I ramp up my cancer drug, my next scan in 3 weeks, in 6 months, in 6 years, or 60 years if God wills it!  I hope something here encourages you too. Thank you for reading, friends.

Love,

Joyce